Remember
by ThoseSunsetEyes
Summary: One-shot series from the author of When the Ocean meets Fire. More information inside...
1. Remember Me?

Hello again! It feels like forever since I've done this, but I did say I'd write some one-shots, and here they are! The following is an introduction to my new series, Remember.

A collection of one-shots about Taz and Up from Starship by StarKid. They will mostly relate to my story, When the Ocean meets Fire, but some might be completely random and won't fit in at all, as I have so many ideas about TUp. Any suggestions will be GREATLY appreciated, just comment with a word or phrase to prompt me and the chapter will hopefully be up shortly! I'm so sorry this has taken so long to start, but I hope you enjoy my collection of tales from before, during and after When the Ocean meets Fire!

Thank you so much for reading,

ThoseSunsetEyes

Xx


	2. Candy Floss

Candy Floss

When Up took Taz to the fairground when they stopped on Farm Planet, he thought it was just another date. He didn't realise it was going to be so...magical. The lights were the first thing he noticed: first because they illuminated the whole fair and made it recognisable from miles away, but also in Taz's eyes as they opened wider and wider, reflecting all the different colours. Then there were the games: he loved how insanely competitive she was, even if it did mean that they had to apologize to the owner of the shooting stall when Taz threw her knife at one of the targets (though she did get a bull's eye, he noted).

However, walking back to the ship, with a mountain of stuffed animals that even he found hard to carry, she saw one stall that really caught her attention.

"Up...what's that?" He looked out from behind the toy pile to see that she was looking over at the stall selling candy floss. He chuckled: Taz really had been in the Starship Rangers for a long time.

"Well that's candy floss, Taz!" He looked at her curiously as her brow crinkled again, as if trying to remember if she'd heard of it before.

Reluctantly, she admitted that she didn't know what he was talking about,

"What is it?" They were walking over to the stall now, and she seemed fascinated with the little pink clouds that people were walking away with.

"It's kinda like spun sugar," she made a face, "but you'll love it-come on! Here, I'll buy you some." He grabbed her hand and pulled her the last few metres to the stall, then went up to the owner whose name tag read 'Selly Sweets'.

It wasn't only because of the sugar rush that Taz's eyes lit up when she ate the candy floss.

"Dios muerto, Up- this is great!" Her head disappeared behind the cloud again and Up had to try not to laugh when she reappeared with the beginnings of a pink moustache. Instead he grinned at how laid-back she was being, away from the enclosed corridors of their small starship; he even swore her walk had more of a skip in it. "Come on, Up, we've got to get back!"

"Hey, save some for me!" He called after her as she bounced away, but instead she turned around and waved the candy floss at him teasingly before breaking into a light jog. "Oh you're gonna get it..." He started running after her but stopped abruptly when she shrieked his name.

"UP!"

"Uh, yeah?"

"Don't forget los animales!"


	3. Leave

Leave

'STARSHIP 39S. CURRENT MISSION: EARTH PLAN #56 – TOP SECRET.

DAY: 65/7

COMMANDER: RESIDENT#493UP

LIEUTENANT: RESIDENT#986TAZ—AMMENDED—RESIDENT#781JAMESHORDEN

STARSHIP TEAM: RESIDENT#832PRIVATEKRAYONDERCLARK, RESIDENT#975PRIVATETOOTSIEMEGAGIRL, RESIDENT#670ENGINEERJULIAAARTMAN, ER/PLANETARYSIDE— :BGWRLDBUGBUGSON.

LOCATION. SEARCHING. SEARCH DECLINED.'

"¡ESTUPIDA ORDINADOR!" Taz slammed her fist down on the keyboard, setting off multiple screens in the control room she'd broken into for the third time that week. She went to check yet again if it had picked up the Starship's location but the screens went black and she stormed out before Officer Genfry and his clone-like nerd gang could come in and give her another lecture as to why she couldn't interfere with their business.

Taz swore at no one in particular as she charged down the corridor to the gym. She ripped off Up's training jacket and punched the nearest thing she could find, which happened to be the wall. Crying out more in irritation than in pain, she wrenched the boots off her feet and began beating the life out of the sandbag in the corner. She didn't care that it was two in the morning and that she'd woken Genfry up too many times to count in the past six weeks, or even that she was probably screaming at the top of her lungs at that moment; all she cared about was putting off the time when she would eventually have to face what she resented to be the truth.

"Taz." She froze. She was about to assume it was just her mind playing tricks on her when she heard footsteps from those familiar boots slowly getting louder, nearer. She didn't turn around until his arms wrapped around her.

Then she span around and punched him in the face.

"¡BASTARDO!"

"Taz, what the-?"

"¡CABRÓN! WHAT DE HELL ARE JOU DOING HERE?" Taz advanced on Up, backing him further into the corner while he tried to shield himself from the constant barrage of punching, kicking and screaming. He wouldn't fight back. And it made her even more furious.

"What's going on? The ship's just docked back-"

"¡IDIOTA! WHAT DO JOU THINK JOU'RE DOING COMING BACK HERE NOW? ¡ESTUPIDA, ESTUPIDA CABRÓN! JOU-"

"TAZ, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?" He gave up and grabbed her wrists, spinning Taz around so she was backed into the corner of the gym. Violently, she shook his hands off and fixed him with a glare as he'd expected, before completely surprising him, and collapsing back against the wall.

"How... how could jou leave like this?" Cryptic question. Damn. Up furiously searched his head for an answer before the automatic one came out of his mouth.

"Like what?" Too late. The glare was back and she stalked off to the middle of the gym, and then hollered back at him.

"OH, LET ME THINK- LIKE WITH A MISSION LENGTH ALMOST SEVEN _WEEKS _MORE THAN IT WAS SUPPOSED TO HAVE, NOT A SINGLE MESSAGE BACK-"

"THE COMMUNICATIONS WERE DOWN, THERE WAS NOTHING I COULD DO!" She shook her head, walking towards him with footsteps which echoed about the room.

" '_NOTHING'_? THERE WAS '_NOTHING'_ JOU COULD DO? HOW ABOUT PUT ME ON DE MISSION LIST AND NOT REPLACE ME WITH SOMEONE ELSE?"

"THE MISSION WAS DANGEROUS, I DIDN'T WANT-"

"WHAT? JOU DIDN'T WANT ME TO GET HURT? HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD JOU, UP? I CAN TAKE CARE OF MYSELF!"

"IT WAS FOR YOUR OWN GOOD-!"

"I THOUGHT JOU WERE DEAD!" He stopped. That was when he noticed the red rings around her eyes that meant she'd been trying not to do something she considered soft for a long time. "I thought jou were dead, and I'd never even said goodbye to jou. How could jou leave- leave _me_."

"Taz, I'm so sorry, I-"

"No it doesn't matter now." She went to walk out of the gym but turned back, the redness under her eyes more prominent now. "Jou know, after a while, I actually started to hope that jou'd been in some accident on de mission, injured. At least, that was one of de ways I tried to distract myself from thinking jou'd just left me to live on another base."

That struck a nerve with him. As Taz walked towards the doors, Up couldn't take it anymore. He couldn't stand how she was being with him, after everything.

"DON'T WALK AWAY FROM ME TAZ!" He saw her clench her fists for a moment, then quicken her pace, then stop, turn around, and throw him the filthiest look he'd ever seen her give him. Her voice echoed harshly back at him.

"AND WHY NOT, COMMANDER?" The fake salute said it all, but it was also the thing that sparked Up's rage.

"DO YOU KNOW WHERE I WENT, TAZ? WHY THE MISSION TOOK SO LONG?" Her expression was unchanged. "I WENT TO MEXICO, TAZ. SPECIFICALLY, GUANAJUATO." She stopped glaring. She leant one hand on the treadmill next to her, and her eyes were wide. She couldn't even muster one sentence as she took in what he'd just said.

"Jou... jou went..."

"That's right Taz, I went to your old home. In fact, I insisted that we went there. We were originally stationed in what was once Japan, trying to deactivate some nuclear complex the robots had left behind. But the thing was, it looked like it'd been put on automatic self-destruct after a certain amount of time, and I knew of another they'd built- not as big, but in a much more important place to me." Taz's eyes flickered up to his face, "So I left Lieutenant Horden with the others and took Specs with me to Mexico-"

"What was it like?" Her voice sounded so small in the high-ceilinged gym, when only moments ago she'd been screaming at him with all her might. He paused, looking into her wide eyes.

"It was unbearable, Taz." He closed his eyes, "It hadn't changed at all- except the people- there wasn't a soul in sight. We managed to get to the nuclear plant and Specs deactivated it, but on the way back, we passed Guanajuato. I knew we were going to, but I didn't stop, or take another way back, but I-" Taz's eyes were fixated on Up's expression now: eyes screwed up in frustration and face contorted with pain. She hadn't realised how hard it was for him still.

Up felt tiny hands on his shoulders and he opened his eyes. All the heightened anger was gone from her face, but she still shared the same pain as him. He gave in to his instincts and pulled her into his arms.

"I couldn't go there again, Taz. I couldn't even make myself stand there and look at it." Taz hugged him tighter,

"I know. Someday we'll leave here and face it together."


	4. Water

Water

He loved to watch Taz in the water; she was relaxed, carefree. She dived and splashed about and laughed in the sunlight and it was beautiful, but it killed him that he couldn't share that with her.

It wasn't so much the water that aggravated his robot side (he could still go out in the rain) but the pressure underwater. They'd agreed that it was ridiculous: all this ground-breaking technology and he couldn't even dunk his head underwater for more than a few seconds without searing pain down the line where flesh stopped and circuitry began. Apparently it was something to do with how the two sides reacted at different rates. He breathed out angrily at the thought, and Taz immediately swam to the side of the pool.

"Hey," she started, knowing exactly what he was thinking about, "I can get out if jou want." He shook his head immediately and lay flat on the side of the pool so his face was level with hers. He reached out a hand and stroked her wet hair, concentrating on the feeling under his fingers. "Do jou think about it a lot? Being in de water?" Up opened his eyes.

"I do. I hate what he's done to me every single day. But in the end, I'm grateful for it, because it means I get to be with you, and that's all that matters."

Taz kissed him so fiercely he almost fell in the pool with her.


End file.
